Inside The Bills

There’s an old saying about running backs. Some have maintained that the more work they get the more effective they are. The phrase makes sense knowing that if a back keeps getting the ball, it’s because the run game is successful. That wears an opposing defense down and the big runs become more and more frequent. In 2017, it hasn’t been a banner year for LeSean McCoy, but his play holds true to this maxim.

As seen in the table below, in the games when McCoy has had more than 20 carries, his yards per carry average is among the best in the league.

McCoy has only gone over 20 carries in a game three times this season, and has just a total of 12 rushes. But as is typically the case the long runs show up late in the game when the opposing defense has been worn out. In fact, McCoy’s longest carry of the season came at the end of the Oakland game when he had a season-high 151 rushing yards on a season-high 27 carries.

So it’s a small sample size and obviously time and score plays a role in whether an offense is running more than it’s throwing late in games, but McCoy is third-best in the league after 20 carries this season.

MOST YARDS PER RUSH, CARRIES 21+, 2017
(minimum 1.25 rushes per team game)